"Kim Kardashian Is the Role Model": What It's Like to Be the Editor of Cosmo Armenia

Hrachuhi Utmazyan, 29, is the first ever editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Armenia. Utmazyan spoke to Cosmopolitan.com about the pushback on controversial content she gets, not from the Armenian government, but from the people who read her magazine.

How did you get to Cosmopolitan? Have you always been a fan?I've always known the brand even though it's not that well-known in Armenia because I just had the chance to travel a lot in my childhood. Years after that, we started getting the Russian publication of Cosmopolitan in Armenia, but it's in the Russian language, it's not your own. And then, about five years ago, I was working in television and one day I got an offer to participate in this contest to become the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan in Armenia. I just thought it was a great opportunity to try myself and to see what would happen. When I got the offer, I was shocked. I realized what a big job I had to do. I thought to myself, It's not difficult. I'm one of those Cosmo girls. I have the same issues, I have the same interests, I argue with my boyfriend, I have breakups. I want to find that perfect eyelash and the mascara or the brush that I really want to use for my hair, for example. So this was the angle I looked at it from. Turns out, I succeeded.

It's funny because when I was younger and I was watching Sex and the City with my friends, we would think which one of us is Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, or Samantha. I always thought I'm Carrie. I don't know why. I don't really look like Sarah Jessica Parker, you know? Years passed, and one day I realized that I am actually writing about relationships as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Armenia, I usually drink Cosmopolitans, duh, and I'm looking for something big, Mr. Big. What's very symbolic for me is that on the cover of our 50th issue is Sarah Jessica Parker and it's my honor. So the competition was my dream come true as a woman, an average woman, a Cosmo girl.

What kind of woman reads Cosmo Armenia?At first, when we just started with Cosmo Armenia, she was 21 to 25–26. But after a while, we realized we don't have any other magazines here especially for women. That's why Cosmo kind of covers women of all different ages and interests. Our reader is married, single, has a cool job, is a student, is divorced, wants to succeed in her career, and Cosmo is the only magazine women can turn to. It is pretty hard to be interesting for the single girl who's taking the first steps in her career, and the married girl who wants to have an awesome relationship and keep the fire with her husband, and also for the woman who's really successful in her career but she needs to find time in her personal life. The same goes with fashion pages and the beauty products. Because it's not only the middle class, it's also women who are kind of oriented on A-class brands — they also read Cosmopolitan.

With such a wide range of readership, what kind of content can your readers expect to see without fail every month in Cosmo?I try to keep the balance for the single girl. And she needs to know how to overcome certain issues in the office. She wants to know all of the season's trends. We try to give her hints like, "If you have a certain shape, you can get this. If you're a fashionista, you can get this, but the best thing is for you to choose that special skirt that will make you look very hot and make you feel very hot." They want to be very trendy. That's Armenian girls. It's hard to talk about sex though. We have to do it in a very mild way.

Are there laws that prevent you from talking openly about sex? What kind of sex do your readers like to hear about?No, no, no, no. We don't have law issues. It's just that society is not open-minded. We got to the point that we already speak openly about sex. Our first issue was about orgasms and we talked about the G-spot because go big or go home! This is what we wanted to make women understand: how to make them please themselves, and how to pleasure their men. We gave the chance on our website for our readers to send anonymous questions because, as I said, people are not ready to talk about it openly. In the first year of doing this, the main question was, "How to have sex and not to lose your virginity." After a period of time, the questions changed. For example, "I'm married already for five years, but the sex drive is kind of gone. What can I do?" Or, "I have vaginismus." At Cosmo, people found a place because they cannot go to a sexologist or their husband won't let them to do that. We gave them this platform where they can find the answers to the questions needed.

What are other common questions you get from readers?A big one is "I only have clitoral orgasms, but I want to know how the vagina orgasms. What position can I use?" Or "My partner asked me to have anal sex, how can I do it without harming myself and is it OK or no?"

Is there any kind of sexual content you've printed that has been considered really taboo?We're not ready to talk about lesbian marriage, gay marriage, because it's not legal in Armenia and people almost don't come out in Armenia. Of course, it's their freedom of choice. I realize it as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, as a human being, as a woman. But it is not legal in Armenia and it just cannot be taken normally.

Do you have any more freedom to cover LGBT issues on your website?We tried to do it once. We talked about lesbian marriage. It's the woman's right to choose her marriage. It wasn't taken well by society, not at all. Even I got some insults at my address saying that Cosmo is propaganda. The readers are not ready for that.

What about abortion? Abortion is legal in Armenia.We've talked about sex-selective abortion many, many times in Armenia because it's a big-time issue here. I don't know why, but in our society, men think that they should have boys. They don't realize that at the end of the day, it's the girl who takes care of her parents. We also cover women's rights issues: domestic violence, sexual violence, AIDS, breast cancer, and more.

What kind of content have you found has grown increasingly popular in your five years at Cosmo?The first main motto of Cosmo Armenia was "Respect yourself. Take care of your health." Seeing your gynecologist at least once in a year, that's respect. That's a must. Then what we tried to do next was talk about mental health. Not many people see psychologists in Armenia, so we tried "Seeing Your Psychologist" and each time, we talked about certain issues that women were going through and what kind of solutions the psychologist might give to her and how she could overcome this certain issue with the help of the psychologist but also making her own decision in the end.

Which celebrities are Armenian women most obsessed with?Kim Kardashian. She was on our first cover when we launched in March 2011 and then she came back for the second time in two years. Then Khloé was on the cover of Cosmo twice, and then Kylie. I mean, they are obsessed with all the Kardashians, but of course Kim is the role model. She was in Armenia recently, as you know.

Yes! What was it like to have her there?The reaction was phenomenal. It just aired on Keeping Up With the Kardashians in Armenia. I wasn't expecting that much kind of buzz around them in a good way.

Why do you think your readers are so obsessed with them in particular? Is it just because they have Armenian roots?Yes, yes.

The Kardashians are very polarizing over here.Same here actually. They love them or they hate them. It's an obsession either way. Mostly they're like, "She's Armenian and she's beautiful and she's successful and she has her own family. She's giving birth to her second child. She's married to one of the hottest men in the world, one of the most successful men in the world." What else can a woman ask for?

Has the body-positivity movement been popular over there?We try to say you're beautiful as you are. You have to love yourself the way you are and if you don't love yourself the way you are, nobody would. You don't have to go through certain surgeries or anything. Actually, I don't like it as a woman, but Botox has become a major thing in Armenia — especially lip Botox. The girls around have big lips. That's kind of in style right now in Armenia. But I think it's a wave that will pass.

Does Kylie Jenner's popularity have anything to do with that?No.

OK. Did Fifty Shades of Grey hit Armenia?Yeah, it was like a major thing because it was like, "Oh my god, a sex movie!" you know? And everyone was like, "Did you watch it? Did you watch it? Did you watch it?" Yeah, it was here. It was major.

What social media platform are most of your readers using right now?Instagram. It's the It Thing right now. Snapchat just started.

What do you think might surprise American readers most about Cosmo Armenia?I guess that maybe the fact that we weren't so ready to speak about sex openly, just like it can happen in the U.S. or other sister editions — but not from a legal point of view, but from society's. We're not that open to speak about sex. That's the difference. We want to read, we want to know more, but we won't speak out loud about it.

Do you consider Cosmopolitan Armenia a feminist publication?The definition of feminism is being a woman, having a great family, but at the same time, having the right of a voice and being successful in your career. So yes.

I want our girls — the reader — to be able to establish a good career, to follow up on her health, to feel beautiful the way she is, and to be in a great relationship. It doesn't matter if it's just a relationship or it's a marriage. I want her to be free in her choices, and I want that to come from the bottom of her heart and her mind. I don't want anyone to make her do something. I want people to respect her decisions. It doesn't matter if it's her husband, her brother, her mom, her dad, or her friends. I don't want her to be a victim of judgment.

Do you feel that Armenian women are subject to a lot of judgment?Yes. For example, I'll hear, "Oh my god, she got divorced. She's going to be alone for the rest of her life." They don't think like, "What the hell! She's been living with a man she didn't love or didn't love her. Why would she live with that person?!" Just because once she said, "I do"? Or if that's a choice she's making and she doesn't want to get married but she wants to have a child of her own and she can be a mother for that child, why would she be judged by society saying, "Oh my god, what did she do?" We're moving forward to get past that. We've succeeded in these five years and I'm really proud of my team [of 15 people] and I'm really proud of my reader, the ones who have kind of grown older with us. I'm proud to be the first editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan in Armenia. It's been an incredible journey.

Cosmo Around the Worldis a weekly column featuring international Cosmo editors. These women explain how they got to be the editors-in-chief of their country's Cosmo, what issues they run into before publication, and what they are most proud of in each of their editions.Read previous Cosmo Around the World columns here.

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